Need some advice. Should I keep a 2014 Late Mac Mini 2.5ghz 4gb or go to 2014 Late IMac 1.5ghz 8gb ?

[tstafford]

Maybe I'm too late to the game, but all I see is, that he wrote 2014 in his first post. Or did he change that afterwards?

Changed it. See his post a few before yours where he says "oops sorry. . ."

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

I'm gonna say it plainly.
If you have a 2014 Mini with only 4gb of RAM...

... it's time to be looking at another Mac.
Either new or Apple-refurbished.

If you like the Mini format, I'd be looking at a 2018 Mini.

Whatever you buy, try to get 16gb of RAM.
16gb is "the new 8"...

 

[opeter]

Changed it. See his post a few before yours where he says "oops sorry. . ."

OK, thanks for clarification. Didn't see that post.

 

[Boyd01]

Changed it. See his post a few before yours where he says "oops sorry. . ."

Still not clear exactly what the OP has. The A1347 is a 2014 Mini, but there is no such thing as a 2.5 ghz 2014 Mini. The base model 2014 mini has a 1.4ghz Haswell 4260U chip. Is *that* what you have? If so, then that is the basically the same as the iMac you mentioned. There's also a 2.6 ghz 2014 Mini, but I thought they generally had 8gb RAM and not 4gb.

I bought as a gift for the kid that no longer wants, a iMac 2014 i5 (4260U Chip) 1.5ghz

I have a 2014 1.5ghz/4gb Mini and used it as a media server for a few years. Was fine for that, but basically worthless for any kind of interactive use, incredibly slow. I recall that it took 45 seconds just to open System Preferences. I would certainly recommend getting rid of this, but would probably look for something better than that iMac.

 

[opeter]

The Core i5-4260U 1.4GHz is in terms of performance almost on par with the older i5-3210M 2.5GHz CPU that is in the 2012 Mac mini. In single core performance of the 4260U is even a bit faster.

Also the integrated graphics (Intel HD 5000) is a bit better than the Intel HD 4000 series one can find in the 3210M.

So, if you've got an 2014 Mac mini with 1.4GHz CPU and 8GB RAM, that is still usable even today, especially if you upgrade the internal HD to an SATA SSD. The 4GB RAM versions on the other hand... 😔

 

[Boyd01]

I've had them all!... a 1.4ghz i5/4gb/500gb HD 2014 Mini as a media server, replaced with a 2.8ghz i5/8gb 1tb Fusion Mini. I split the 128gb internal SSD from the hard disk and use it as the startup drive, with all my media on a 4tb external USB SSD. I also use this machine to stream audio/video with SiriusXM and Sling, watch iTunes video. etc. It's fine for that but I don't think I'd use it for Final Cut Pro.

Also had the base 2012 2.5ghz/4gb/500gb HD Mini and used it for a media server before I got the 2014 Mini. I would say that base 2012 Mini was a far better machine than the base 2014. I never saw the kind of "lag" on the 2012 where icons bounced endlessly in the dock before opening. And as a plus, RAM is easily upgraded to 16 gb on the 2012. I suppose an advantage of the 2014 is that it's easier to add a SSD than the 2012.

Now, I also have a 2012 top-spec Mini with the quad 2.6ghz i7/16gb/256gb original Apple SSD. That is much nicer than any of the 2014 Mini's. I used that machine pretty heavily for several years with Final Cut Pro, editing 1080p video and found it quite usable. It's now a file server for time machine and archival storage, but this is the primary use recently. These Mini's have always run warm, and the gentle purr of the fan is so soothing!

 

[applelover4u]

As for advice on Mac_Mini's, I have a Mac mini 2012 sitting in a drawer and might bet that running one of these days
since i have 3 MacBooks, I just dont need another one taking juice!
View attachment 2139882

good luck tho!

How much memory does it have and process speed?

 

[MBAir2010]

How much memory does it have and process speed?

i7 procesor and now 4gb from 16gb ram
the fan socket popped off the logic board so I use a USC one to cool the mini.